Book picks similar to
Shadow by Dave Duncan
fantasy
pfaf
science
fiction
The Curse of the Mistwraith
Janny Wurts - 1993
Only the combined powers of two half-brothers can challenge the Mistwraith’s stranglehold: Arithon, Master of Shadow and Lysaer, Lord of Light.Arithon and Lysaer will find that they are inescapably bound inside a pattern of events dictated by their own deepest convictions. Yet there is more at stake than one battle with the Mistwraith – as the sorcerers of the Fellowship of Seven know well. For between them the half-brothers hold the balance of the world, its harmony and its future, in their hands.
Alphabet of Thorn
Patricia A. McKillip - 2004
Now sixteen, she knows little of the outside world — except for the documents that traders and travelers bring her to interpret.Then, during the coronation of the new Queen of Raine, a young mage gives Nepenthe a book that has defied translation. Written in a language of thorns, it speaks to Nepenthe's soul — and becomes her secret obsession. And, as the words escape the brambles and reveal themselves, Nepenthe finds her destiny entwined with that of the young queen's. Sooner than she thinks, she will have to choose between the life she has led and the life she was born to lead...
Variable Star
Robert A. Heinlein - 2006
And when she finally agreed to marry him, he felt like the luckiest man in the universe.There was just one small problem. He was broke. His only goal in life was to become a composer, and he knew it would take years before he was earning enough to support a family.But Jinny wasn't willing to wait. And when Joel asked her what they were going to do for money, she gave him a most unexpected answer. She told him that her name wasn't really Jinny Hamilton---it was Jinny Conrad, and she was the granddaughter of Richard Conrad, the wealthiest man in the solar system. And now that she was sure that Joel loved her for herself, not for her wealth, she revealed her family's plans for him---he would be groomed for a place in the vast Conrad empire and sire a dynasty to carry on the family business.Most men would have jumped at the opportunity. But Joel Johnston wasn't most men. To Jinny's surprise, and even his own, he turned down her generous offer and then set off on the mother of all benders. And woke up on a colony ship heading out into space, torn between regret over his rash decision and his determination to forget Jinny and make a life for himself among the stars.He was on his way to succeeding when his plans--and the plans of billions of others--were shattered by a cosmic cataclysm so devastating it would take all of humanity's strength and ingenuity just to survive.
MetaGame
Sam Landstrom - 2009
Winners earn immortality, while losers are condemned to aging and death. D_Light, a gifted player, knows this all too well and he’s willing to do anything to win—even kill. It is no wonder then that when given the chance to enter a MetaGame—an exclusive, high-stakes, anything goes contest—he’s quick to jump at the opportunity. The MetaGame starts out well enough for D_Light, the first quest being to hunt down a dangerous fugitive, but through his own ambition, the tables turn and D_Light finds himself the renegade. Now, D_Light pits himself against his world to find the truth behind “The Game” and must decide between winning it and saving what’s left of his humanity. This book blends emerging political and cultural trends, such as gaming culture, globalization, and the ever-increasing hegemony of corporations, with technological trends, such as genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. Oh, and if that is not enough, there's even some romance!
Too Like the Lightning
Ada Palmer - 2016
For his crimes he is required, as is the custom of the 25th century, to wander the world being as useful as he can to all he meets. Carlyle Foster is a sensayer--a spiritual counselor in a world that has outlawed the public practice of religion, but which also knows that the inner lives of humans cannot be wished away.The world into which Mycroft and Carlyle have been born is as strange to our 21st-century eyes as ours would be to a native of the 1500s. It is a hard-won utopia built on technologically-generated abundance, and also on complex and mandatory systems of labeling all public writing and speech. What seem to us normal gender distinctions are now distinctly taboo in most social situations. And most of the world's population is affiliated with globe-girdling clans of the like-minded, whose endless economic and cultural competition is carefully managed by central planners of inestimable subtlety. To us it seems like a mad combination of heaven and hell. To them, it seems like normal life.And in this world, Mycroft and Carlyle have stumbled on the wild card that may destablize the system: the boy Bridger, who can effortlessly make his wishes come true. Who can, it would seem, bring inanimate objects to life...
Last Song Before Night
Ilana C. Myer - 2015
Following a cataclysmic battle, the enchantments of Eivar were lost–now a song is only words and music, and no more. But when a dark power threatens the land, poets who thought only to gain fame for their songs face a task much greater: to restore the lost enchantments to the world. And the road to the Otherworld, where the enchantments reside, will imperil their lives and test the deepest desires of their hearts.
The Killing Moon
N.K. Jemisin - 2012
Upon its rooftops and among the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers - the keepers of this peace. Priests of the dream-goddess, their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe...and kill those judged corrupt.But when a conspiracy blooms within Gujaareh's great temple, the Gatherer Ehiru must question everything he knows. Someone, or something, is murdering innocent dreamers in the goddess's name, and Ehiru must now protect the woman he was sent to kill - or watch the city be devoured by war and forbidden magic.
Denner's Wreck
Lawrence Watt-Evans - 1988
Millennia ago, the survivors of a crash settled the planet of Denner's Wreck. Their descendents long ago forgot their own history. Centuries later, the planet was rediscovered by visitors who stayed-and came to be called The Powers. The descendants of the original settlers soon learned to treat the newcomers like gods. Then, one fine day, Bredon the Hunter found himself caught up in the affairs of the Powers-at just the moment one of them went mad With a new afterword by the Author. Previously published as Denner's Wreck.
Dream Park
Larry Niven - 1981
For fifteen virtual reality gamers undertaking a four-and-half day quest, the fantasy slaying of monsters is suddenly interrupted-by murder.
The Fellowship of the Talisman
Clifford D. Simak - 1978
Half the country was in the grip of the fell Harriers, and it was through these Haried Lands that DUncan of Standish would have to make his way to Oxenford. His mission was to authenticate a long-lost testament which offered the only hope against the terror.Beset by Harriers, Duncan is saved by Diane, great-granddaughter of a renegade wizard, and joined by the strangest company ever asembled: a timid hermit, a ghost who knows nothing of ghosthood, a banshee, a grumpy goblin, a witch who could never quite make herself evil enough, and a demon who is AWOL from Hell.Duncan believes himself protected by the talisman of a wizard's bauble. But when the Evil forces detect the company and mount a final assault against them, Duncan sees his only hope crumble in failure. He is left with only his courage and his mission. . .
Dragonhaven
Robin McKinley - 2007
In this fascinating look at a modern-day world where dragons truly exist, the Newbery Medal-winning author of The Hero and the Crown takes readers into a controversial nature preserve, which about 200 of the worlds few remaining dragons call home.
In Alien Flesh
Gregory Benford - 1986
He knew the risks, but he didn't know how his life would be changed forever by his contact with the huge aliens on a watery world.Contents:Blood on Glass (1986) poemIn Alien Flesh (1978)Time Shards (1979)Redeemer (1979)Snatching the Bot (1977)Relativistic Effects (1982)Nooncoming (1978)To the Storming Gulf (1985)White Creatures (1975)Me/Days (1984)Of Space/Time and the River (1985)Exposures (1981)Time's Rub (1985)Doing Lennon (1975)
The Fifth Dominion
Clive Barker - 1991
There has never been a book like Imajica. Transforming every expectation of fantasy fiction with its heady mingling of radical sexuality and spiritual anarchy, it has carried its millions of readers into regions of passion and philosophy that few books have even attempted to map. It's an epic in every way; vast in conception, obsessively detailed in execution, and apocalyptic in its resolution. A book of erotic mysteries and perverse violence. A book of ancient, mythological landscapes and even more ancient magic.
The Shadow of What Was Lost
James Islington - 2014
The dictatorial Augurs—once thought of almost as gods—were overthrown and wiped out during the conflict, their much-feared powers mysteriously failing them. Those who had ruled under them, men and women with a lesser ability known as the Gift, avoided the Augurs' fate only by submitting themselves to the rebellion's Four Tenets. A representation of these laws is now written into the flesh of any who use the Gift, forcing those so marked into absolute obedience.As a student of the Gifted, Davian suffers the consequences of a war fought—and lost—before he was born. Despised by most beyond the school walls, he and those around him are all but prisoners as they attempt to learn control of the Gift. Worse, as Davian struggles with his lessons, he knows that there is further to fall if he cannot pass his final tests. But when Davian discovers he has the ability to wield the forbidden power of the Augurs, he sets into motion a chain of events that will change everything. To the north, an ancient enemy long thought defeated begins to stir. And to the west, a young man whose fate is intertwined with Davian’s wakes up in the forest, covered in blood and with no memory of who he is…
Tooth and Claw
Jo Walton - 2003
A family deals with the death of their father. A son goes to court for his inheritance. Another son agonises over his father's deathbed confession. One daughter becomes involved in the abolition movement, while another sacrifices herself for her husband. And everyone in the tale is a dragon, red in tooth and claw. Here is a world of politics and train stations, of churchmen and family retainers, of courtship and country houses... in which, on the death of an elder, family members gather to eat the body of the deceased. In which the great and the good avail themselves of the privilege of killing and eating the weaker children, which they do with ceremony and relish, growing stronger thereby. You have never read a novel like Tooth and Claw.